French beans are small, slender, straight green beans with a low starch content, which snap when broken and usually grow on bushes. When young, the beans and the pods are cooked and eaten. In this form they are known as green beans, haricot vert in France, green snap beans or string beans in the United States. As they mature, only the beans are cooked and are then usually known as flageolet in France, or green shell beans in the United States. When the beans are dried they are haricot beans (US: navy beans), haricot sec in France, dry shell beans in the United States. Yellow varieties are often more tender and less stringy.
